If You Dare by Jessica Lemmon Page A

from his seated position, knees pulled up, arms wrapped around them, but he did turn his head and scrunch his brow in contention. “What?”
    She nodded. So sure of her observation. “You leapt out of this room and put yourself in potential danger to protect me.”
    “Whatever.” His fingers tapped a distressed rhythm against his jeans. “I walked into the kitchen to check for an ax murderer for me as much as I did it for you.”
    She grinned. Sure he did. “You mean one carrying a plastic ax and wearing a hockey mask?”
    He gave her a bland look. “Touché.”
    “What was your plan, anyway? Send me running to my car, screaming down the hillside?”
    “Basically.”
    She shook her head. Maybe he wasn’t all that heroic after all. Yet she was attracted to him. Which could only mean one thing: Marcus didn’t have pheromones like normal men. He emitted something akin to a hallucinogenic drug.
    The heater next to them chugged, whined, and died.
    “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Lily hit the top. Hit the side. Switched the dials up then down.
    “Is this the way you usually fix things? Just bang on them until they’re operational again?”
    “Seems to work for the vending machine in the break room.”
    He brushed her hands aside and inspected the heater. “This isn’t a glass box withholding your Mallomars.” The Coleman winked out next, plunging the room into darkness.
    He swore.
    She felt like swearing, too. “I just bought that!” she said instead. So not the issue . She flipped open the cover on her iPad and cast light onto Marcus’s face. It died next. Just went dark, when she knew she had 87 percent battery left.
    “What the hell?” He snatched the iPad, and she heard him click the button ineffectually three times before blowing out a frustrated breath.
    With the heater silent, the room black, there was only the sound of the wind pressing against the boarded windows keeping them company. Cold, howling wind.
    “Marcus?” Her voice was a thin thread. She sounded scared. She didn’t care. She was scared.
    “It’s okay.” His hand found her leg, and she clutched onto him. Marcus’s body shifted, and she heard the clatter of the exhausted Coleman as he slid it aside. He shoved the heater next before leaning to one side and digging in his pocket. He muttered a curse. “My phone’s dead.”
    Her phone! Of course. She let go of his hand and felt blindly in the small space until she found her purse. After a few seconds of digging, she found her phone and pressed a button. Light flared between them. She examined the screen. “No signal. But we have light.”
    He took her hand and directed the muted light around the bedding. His firm grip warmed her arm, distracting her from everything else but the feel of his skin against hers.
    When he located the flashlight, he let her go. “Plenty of light,” he said, flicking it on then off. “Better save it.”
    Their eyes met in the pale light emitting from her phone, and she felt the air shift between them, vibrating with a different kind of tension.
    The sexy kind.
    His throat worked as he swallowed. “We should go to the road,” he said, his voice low. “See if you can get a signal.”
    She shook her head. “I have a bet to win. I’m not giving up because it’s dark.”
    And she didn’t want to interrupt the heavy tension clinging to the blackness surrounding them. Despite the shadows pressing in on them from every angle, she felt like she was seeing Marcus clearly for the first time. Something told her he wasn’t as selfish and cocky as he pretended to be. It was the way he looked at her…the way his features softened when his eyes met hers.
    “Determined to take this from me the way you did Sunny Acres, aren’t you?” he teased, his mouth tipping on one side.
    She felt a pinch of regret that he’d effectively removed the sexual tension and turned it into the usual kind of argumentative tension between them. “This again?” She sighed,